


Irreducible

by BlueMinuet



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Transformers: Lost Light 25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 07:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21050615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMinuet/pseuds/BlueMinuet
Summary: At the start of a brand new quest, Rodimus realizes that he’s never seen thetrueMinimus.“What are you talking about?” Minimus said with a scoff. “I’ve transformed around you dozens of times.”“No,Magnushas,” Rodimus corrected. “Minimus, well… only the once. That time on… which pleasure planet was it? Celestra?”“Celestris VI,” Minimus said. “With the misplaced land mines…”“Yeah…” Rodimus said. “Anyway, that was your MinimusArmoralt mode. I meant your real alt… The one you have when you’re not wearing any armor at all.”





	Irreducible

**Author's Note:**

> Originally featured in the Tempered Steel zine.

Minimus walked onto the bridge, holding his head as high as he could, even if it wasn’t as high as he was once did. It felt like a lifetime since he was last in the Magnus Armor, having it destroyed after the Lost Light’s last flight. He had thought that would be the end of his adventuring days.

Of course, he should have taken into account that Rodimus could talk him into anything.

Speaking of the captain, he caught sight of Minimus walking up and smiled at him “Admiring the new ship?” Rodimus asked, swiveling around a bit to face him better.

Minimus wasted no time in handing over a data pad. “I’ve finished my preliminary inspection. Given the time constraints, I wasn’t able to make it as thorough as I would have liked, but you’ll see the follow-up items in red, with a schedule of supplementary inspections and action items in descending order from most pressing to least pressing.”

He watched as Rodimus got about halfway through the first page before thumbing vigorously across the screen to skip to the end. “Just like old times, huh?”

“It would seem so, judging from your level of skimming,” Minimus muttered.

Rodimus smirked at that. “Well, I guess it’s not _just_ like old times.” He looked over at Minimus. “It’s weird not craning my neck for this kind of conversation.”

Minimus frowned.

“It’s also weird not to see sprinkler inspections right front and center,” Rodimus said, looking back at the data pad, unable to hide a widening grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll get one of the nerds to make you a ladder or something.”

Minimus huffed. “I’ll ask Perceptor myself. I’d be concerned about Brainstorm taking it as an opportunity to make me a new battle suit.”

Rodimus tapped the pad thoughtfully against his armrest. “Can’t say I’m seeing a big downside on that one. Hell, he could just make one with a firetruck alt mode if you really want to fit in with the sprinklers.” He paused a bit abruptly at the end of the sentence, a fact that Minimus only noticed because he was accustomed to a statement such as that followed by at least one (misquoted) line from the sprinkler epic novel that Rodimus had once found in his files and never let him forget about.

“What?” Minimus asked, cocking a brow in concern.

“I just realized something,” Rodimus said, his voice a touch too low and portraying an uncharacteristic sheepishness. Before Minimus could actually become concerned, the smirk reappeared. “I’ve never actually seen your alt mode.”

“What are you talking about?” Minimus said with a scoff. “I’ve transformed around you dozens of times.”

“No, _Magnus_ has,” Rodimus corrected. “Minimus, well… only the once. That time on… which pleasure planet was it? Celestra?”

“Celestris VI,” Minimus said. “With the misplaced land mines…”

“Yeah…” Rodimus said. “Anyway, that was your Minimus _Armor_ alt mode. I meant your real alt… The one you have when you’re not wearing any armor at all.”

Minimus shuffled and looked away. He wasn’t sure if he liked where this conversation was going. “Well, since even _you_ noticed the lack of a thorough sprinkler inspection, I suppose I’ll see myself down to the lab to see what Perceptor can do for me.”

He had already turned away, but without even looking he could hear the frown in Rodimus’s voice. “Oh, come on, Mins! I was just teasing!”

He knew that… and he also knew he would rather have his head crushed than have such a conversation on the bridge. He paused before entering the lift, at least giving Rodimus a small glance to placate him. “I have duties to attend to. I’m sure we’ll have time to discuss later.”

Rodimus’s sigh could be heard even through the pneumatic hiss of the lift doors closing.

Minimus ever so briefly considered the merits of grabbing a drink at Swerve’s, before resolutely keying in the sequence for the science lab.  
  


* * *

  
Minimus returned to his habsuite, expecting to find chaos. Given that, it wasn’t his quarters alone anymore. The fact of the matter was, Rodimus had asked him about sharing the minute they had stepped on the ship. It created a certain efficiency, Rodimus had said, to have the captain and the second in command bunking in one room. Minimus knew a justification when he heard one, though that pitch had been one of the more effective ones. Curse Rodimus and his knowledge of Minimus’s weakness for efficiency. And, well, his weakness for Rodimus in general.

He’d expected to return to find Rodimus impishly lying in wait, fully prepared to continue his needling in his quest to find out Minimus’s alt mode. What he found instead was...

Well, the last thing in the entire universe he had expected to find.

Rodimus was tucked away next to the window, a data pad in his hand and a few others sprawled out around him as well. To Minimus’s surprise, all of them looked like they had been touched and read to some degree. He looked over when the door swished shut behind Minimus, and gave a gentle smile.

“Welcome back,” Rodimus said, in a voice that was hardly taunting at all.

Minimus looked around, as if the room might be booby trapped in some way.

“Did you start on any of your follow-up inspections yet?” Rodimus asked. He had turned back to the data pad in his hand, and although he was chewing on his stylus (to Minimus’s horror) he appeared to actually be reading it.

“I thought it would be prudent, for the time being at least, to try to stick to procedure and wait for captain approval before moving on with the plans,” Minimus said.

“Oh, did the task board not update?” Rodimus asked. He nodded at Minimus’s desk in the corner. Minimus had insisted that he did not require a lavish work space, a comment which Rodimus had promptly ignored before having a large desk installed in the corner, with enough room to really spread out and dig into the meat of any paperwork. It was not without a bit of vandalism on the surface, having fallen victim to Rodimus’s boredom, but it was a sight to behold nonetheless. “I left a hard copy there. It’s just the first set of approvals, mind you, I’m still working on sets two through eleven,” he said, nodding at the small pile around him.

“You...” Before saying anything else, Minimus stalked over to his desk and looked at his inbox. Sure enough, there was a new data pad there. In the right spot, no less! “You did… paperwork.”

Rodimus’s bite on the stylus had grown even more pronounced. “Well, yeah, of course.”

“Of course,” Minimus parroted back, but with suspicion.

A silence passed between them that was tremendously deafening.

“You like it when people do paperwork,” Rodimus said. “You liked it back when... well. Back in the old days.”

Minimus frowned. For every moment he felt like they had been transported back into the past seamlessly, there were a dozen other moments like this one where the loss of what had been was palpable.

“Anyway,” Rodimus said. “I wanted you to... Feel comfortable. Around me. Like you used to.”

Minimus blinked at him. “What?”

“I’m... well, I wanted to apologize about the bridge.”

“Rodimus...”

“No,” Rodimus said, “I know that it may not be necessary, but it’s weird now, isn’t it? Being back.” He looked back out the window. “After the Lost Light… It’s like I forgot how to be around other people, much less command them.” His fingers were kneading the back of the pad, and for a moment Minimus worried over its structural integrity. “But, for all the things that changed, I didn’t want you to think I stopped respecting you.”

Minimus shuffled, unsure what to say to that. “Rodimus, I...”

“Anyway, this is my apology,” Rodimus said, gathering up all of the pads. “I’ll finish these later, I promise... But for now, I think some of the outer hull needed a bit of maintenance.”

“I...”

Before Minimus could say anything, Rodimus was out of the door.  
  


* * *

  
Rodimus adored open space. When the ship wasn’t moving at physics breaking speed, it was more than safe for the average Cybertronian to be out on the hull. And more often than not, he found himself out there when he needed some time alone. Most of the crew knew him well enough, but Rodimus knew that was a double edged sword. Even if it wasn’t spoken, there was an expectation on him, just as there had been long ago, but time had stripped him of that reckless confidence that once made that easier to bear. It was hard to reclaim that once lost. 

Harder when he wasn’t even sure he wanted it back.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed when he realized that he wasn’t alone. There was no sound available to be a tip off in space, but the prickle of a nearby field made Rodimus sit up straight. He turned and squinted behind him, trying to parse out shapes in the low light. For a minute, he was almost certain that he saw Ravage, and was startled enough to bolt to his feet. But, no, definitely not Ravage.

A beastformer, and not too different from a feline one at that, lopped gently towards him, bouncing off the hull every so often before the ship’s gravity pulled them back in. Rodimus found himself simply admiring the precision. 

Well, until they tripped over their own paws on a landing.

Rodimus laughed, knowing they couldn’t hear it out in the vacuum. “Haven’t got your space legs yet?” he sent out on a short range band.

“My space legs are perfectly calibrated, thank you very much, I’ve simply forgotten what to do with all four,” came the reply.

The small form leapt again, and this time Rodimus waved out a hand, concerned about the trajectory they were taking. He ended up with a small green bundle of turbofox smashing into his chest.

“I had the situation under control.”

“Sure you did,” Rodimus said with a smirk to his new companion, before holding them up to get a better look.

The green and white armor glinted in the starlight, and if that wasn’t enough, the red glare in the optics would have been a dead giveaway.

Rodimus’s face lit up. “No. Way.”

“Put me down,” Minimus groused.

Rodimus did so, if only so he could clutch his own cheeks on either side of an insufferable grin.

“And for the love of Primus, please do not call me cute.” Minimus settled down on his haunches, and wrapped his tail over his paws.

Rodimus made a squealing sound that thankfully was lost to the void of space.

“You’re...” Rodimus paused, considering his next words carefully. “I never thought...”

“It’s not something I advertise,” Minimus said. “As you noted, I’m not exactly forthcoming about my alt mode. Originally out of necessity, but...”

Rodimus nodded, understanding. “Why show me now then?”

Minimus stared at him for a moment. “Things have changed,” he said finally. The aloof demeanor dissolved as he stood, and swiped his tail along Rodimus’s sitting form as he circled around him one full revolution, before awkwardly settling in his lap.

Rodimus blinked in awe, his arms frozen as if he was worried that he might mess things up if he moved.

“Also, I want to make sure you know,” Minimus said, settling his paws on Rodimus’s knee, and gently resting his head on them.

Rodimus stared at him. “Know… what?”

“That I’m always comfortable around you.”

Rodimus felt a tension in his frame drain at that. He moved a hand, more hesitantly than he was used to moving, and placed it on Minimus’s head. He was rewarded with Minimus relaxing into the touch, and Rodimus felt positively giddy.

“I know you’re laughing even if I can’t hear it,” Minimus groused.

That didn’t stop Rodimus in the slightest.


End file.
